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Breeze Article

Lessons Learned from a Former Breeze Newbie

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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Case Study: An Overview of Using Breeze Live, Flash, and RoboDemo for Web Conferencing
  3. The Mechanics of Preparing and Delivering Presentations in Breeze Live
  4. Resources for Breeze Live Presenters and Participants

The Mechanics of Preparing and Delivering Presentations in Breeze Meeting

I learned some valuable lessons from the web conferencing sessions I described above. When I talk with people who want to use Breeze Meeting but have not done so yet, their first question is inevitably “can you teach me about the basic functionality?” Certainly this was my first question when I started out, and I couldn’t find a simple, practical walkthrough of basic features. However, I was fortunate enough to know a few Macromedians who taught me in a few minutes what I might have missed in hours perusing the documentation. These are my essential tips in for preparing and delivering presentations in Breeze Meeting.

Jonathan Kaye in his "broadcast studio"

Figure 5. The author in his “broadcast studio”


Planning the Content and Delivery

  • Using interactive demonstrations for participants: Interaction is a great way to maintain participant attention; however, the interaction has to be meaningful and relevant to the content, not just something to act as a wakeup call. Be as clear as possible about what you expect the participant to do. If you want the participant to try something, make the task(s) very specific. For instance, if I want to demonstrate anything more than a simple sequence, I do one of the following:

    • Record it using Captivate (formerly RoboDemo)
    • Prepare a custom animation
    • Demonstrate it live using screen sharing.

    While not technically an interactive demonstration, I’ve found that polls are a convenient and easy way to stimulate discussion and verify your audience follows your content.

  • Preparing examples in Flash: Consider the following tips when using Flash in Breeze:

    • Do not depend on the _root keyword
    • Recognize that the SWF files run at 30 frames per second, regardless of the frame rate set in the SWF files
    • If you use the setInterval property, provide a way for participants to cancel the timers before closing the SWF file, otherwise your intervals will continue to be called if the user views the SWF file again during the session

  • Preparing examples in Captivate (formerly RoboDemo): Use Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) when you want to demonstrate a precise sequence of interactions. Then, play the sequence or modify it for participant interaction.

    To make a Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) movie interactive, you do the following:

    • Find the frame on which you want user interaction
    • Hide the mouse (and associated click sounds)
    • Make the user click on the spot that activates the interaction (such as pulling down a menu), or add a button that the user clicks

    Here are some other tips for using Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) movies:

    • Recording movies for use in Breeze: Keep demonstrations as short and small. If you use full-motion recording, play it back outside of Breeze, as the scaling that occurs within Breeze may break up moving images. With full-motion recording, I placed the movies on the web and launched them through the participants browser (through a Web Links pod).
    • Adding captions: Adding captions was easy, but I got a little confused with timing when I had captions and interactivity on the same frame. Captions faded out before the interaction. You can modify the interaction (the click box, for example) by right-clicking it; a menu option appears that you can use to associate the caption with the interactivity.
    • Simulating responses to interaction: After an interaction, I was at first choosing the option to “Continue” with the movie, but it's best to use the “Go to Frame” option.
  • Using Application Sharing: Application sharing (allowing remote participants to interact with applications on the presenter’s computer) is an area that requires practice. I recommend that if you need to use application sharing with participants who have not done it before, that you keep the interactions extremely simple.
  • Using the Whiteboard: For the situations that I taught to new users, I would have preferred a simplified whiteboard, perhaps just a pen tool and a text tool. The great thing about Breeze is that this is something that a developer or programmer who wants to extend Breeze capabilities could write fairly easily!
  • Freezing live video: While it is nice for users to see a little talking head during the presentation, I prefer to frame a good shot at the beginning of the presentation and then freeze the camera by clicking the camera icon when your cursor is over your video window. Breeze gives you all sorts of options for video, such as high quality, fast, and slow. But unless you want to use the video for something other than your own headshot, I suggest freezing the camera as well.

  • Numbering your content in the “Show Pods” menu: The “Show Pods” menu contains all the custom content you’ve uploaded and named for your presentation. Even if you name your pods meaningfully, it still may confuse you during the presentation as you try to find the content from your list of items. A better approach is to prefix a number to the name, in the order you plan to use the content (thanks to Tom King for this gem!). If you have more than nine items, prefix a zero to the first nine so that Breeze orders the list properly.


  • Using layouts: You’ve heard that many people who use Internet browsers never bother to change the initial home page? Similarly, there are Breeze presenters who don’t bother customizing the layouts. One of the greatest features in Breeze is the ability to place and size your pods in the arrangement most suitable for the content or interaction in the current segment of your presentation. Layouts are simply arrangements of the loaded pods, so you can preserve pods across different layouts, as I mentioned in the article’s example of keeping the finished whiteboard visible during programming.

Delivery of Content

Here are some observations about giving a presentation that retains a professional image.

  • Remote Monitor. It is essential that you use a remote monitor when you present. Log in as a participant so that you know what the audience sees. I set up a second computer next to my main computer so I could glance at it to verify the right material has loaded before beginning to explain it. It had also helped me catch a few times when I had pointed things out on my presenter machine using my cursor, but I had forgotten to turn on the visible pointer for the audience.

  • Low-Bandwidth Meetings. Most meetings end up with some connections that are not very fast, so it is always worth considering elements that can unnecessarily tie up to valuable communication bandwidth. Here's what I consider:

    • Make sure your meeting connection speed is set appropriately, and ensure that the participants know to set their speeds as well
    • Close non-essential applications running on your machine
    • Don’t allow participants to broadcast audio or video
    • Use a telephone or conference call instead of VoIP, if possible
    • Freeze your web cam image, or set it to “slow” refresh, if absolutely necessary
    • If you use screen share, reduce your screen to the smallest reasonable resolution
    • Instead of screen sharing to browse interesting websites together, use the Web Links pod to open them in the participant’s browser; then tell your the participants to look at the site
  • Record Your Meetings. Since Breeze records events rather than screen shots, you can play the recording at whichever size you’d like, and all the interactive SWF files that a typical participant would manipulate can be manipulated (but not re-recorded) during playback. Let’s say, for example, a customer or salesperson was unable to attend the presentation, or wanted to view it later. That person could play the recording and still interact with any interactive SWF’s presented, instead of passivly watching the recording.

Resources for Presenters and Participants

  • Being a Breeze Meeting Presenter, I want to share a pre-flight checklist I used for my presentation.

Preparation Checklist for Presenters

  1. Turn off the screen saver in presenter machine.
  2. Set the screen to a small resolution (such as 800 x 600).
  3. Clear and organize your desktop.
  4. Shut down non-essential applications (including IM, MSN, and so forth).
  5. Turn off your telephone. Close your door and hang a "Do not disturb" sign on the outside.
  6. Start the applications that you will share.
  7. Start your remote monitor.
  8. Turn off the screen saver on your remote monitor.
  9. Test audio (whether through Breeze or telephone).
  10. Turn off the remote monitor’s audio.
  11. Check the presenter’s speaker volume. Check whether there is any audio feedback.
  12. Set connection speeds for presentation.
  13. Wear something nice!
  14. Delete pods you don’t need. Select Organize Pods from the menu (such as file share, notes). This makes it quicker for you to access the pods you use.
  15. Put the remote monitor’s mouse nearby to close the browser when using hyperlinks.
  16. Have your Breeze log-on ready. If you’re doing screen share and accidentally close Breeze (not that this has happened to me) you'll be able to access the Breeze presenter interface more quickly.
  17. If the meeting is informal, keep a notepad nearby to note presentation ideas and mistakes.
  18. Start recording!

 

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